Conoco’s Mulva: Waxman-Markey ‘Unfair’ to Refiners

By

Guy Chazan

Jun 8, 2009 1:05 pm ET

ConocoPhillips, unlike some of its peers in the oil patch, tried to play ball and help shape U.S. climate policy. Conoco, a charter member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, publicly called for the type of cap-and-trade program Congress has just produced.

“It’s important to have a seat at the table,” Conoco chief executive James Mulva said in an interview, defending his company’s decision to lobby for federal action on climate change. The problem is, Mr. Mulva’s not happy with what’s being served.

The oil industry and plenty of outside observers figure the Waxman-Markey climate bill gives the electricity industry too much and the transportation sector too little. In other words, for all its 1,000 complicated pages, the bill boils down to a glorified gas tax.

That’s got Mr. Mulva and other oil executives steaming. Waxman-Markey would give oil refiners just 2% of the free emissions permits being handed out; the electricity sector, in contrast, would receive 35% of the permits.

According to Mr. Mulva’s sums, the total CO2 footprint of the oil and gas industry–including exploration and production, terminals, pipelines and refineries–is 4% of total U.S. emissions. Some 24% comes from consumers—from the tailpipes of automobiles and trucks. Refineries, he says, are being unfairly penalized, and they’ll find it nearly impossible to pass on the increased costs to consumers…